1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a bending operating member used for a bending operation of an elongated member having flexibility, and a medical apparatus equipped with the bending operating member.
2. Background Art
In the medical field, an elongated member having flexibility is generally used as medical equipment for access for performing administration of medicine into a living body, suction or injection of various fluids, introduction of a medical device into the living body, or the like. Prior to the introduction of the medical device or the like, this type of elongated member is inserted into a lumen (a blood vessel, a body cavity, or the like) of the living body, and is guided to a target area, such as a part to be treated and its peripheral part. In order to appropriately guide the elongated member to the target area during such use, it is often necessary to introduce the elongated member along a curved path like the lumen of the living body. For this reason, an operating member for a bending operation capable of arbitrarily performing a bending operation by a user's proximal operation when the elongated member is used may be used after being assembled into the elongated member.
JP-A-2008-142199 describes an operating member including an operating wire connected to an elongated member and a handle that winds the operating wire to thereby bend the elongated member, and an endoscope into which the operating member is assembled. In this operating member, the handle is provided to protrude from a side portion of a case installed on a proximal side of the operating member, and the handle is rotated around an axis orthogonal to an axial direction of the elongated member and thereby the operating wire is wound to perform a bending operation.
However, in the operating member described above, the elongated member can be bent, but operational constraints may occur in an apparatus in which the operating member is assembled. For example, if the handle of the operating member is installed at a proximal operating section of the medical device, so that a user is enabled to simply perform a bending operation at hand, the handle is provided at the side portion of the case installed at the operating member so as to protrude therefrom. The user must carefully perform various operations using the proximal operating section so that the handle is not accidentally touched by fingers. For this reason, use of the operating member of the related art results in a medical device that forces excessive caution while in use and has poor user-friendliness.
Thus, there is a need for a bending operating member that can simply perform the bending operation of an elongated member having flexibility and can provide a medical apparatus that has improved operativity and convenience during use, and a medical apparatus equipped with the bending operating member.